Central College Brand

Writing style guide

Source: AP Style Guide. For all other questions, see the complete AP Style Guide and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Composition titles

Quotations should be used for titles of books, magazines, journals, movies, television shows, articles, chapters and poems. Do not italicize or underline.

Dates

When using a month alone, spell out. When using a month with a date, abbreviate. Use a comma after the date when including month, date and year. Use a comma after the day of the week when including month and date. Use day of the week when the date is in the future but not if it’s in the past.

Examples:

The play is in October.

October 2016

Oct. 8

Jan. 12, 2013

Saturday, Aug. 18 (for a future date)

Incorrect:

October of 2016

Degrees

Capitalize the formal name of a degree, but keep lowercase in the more informal usage.

Examples:

Master of Fine Arts

B.A.

master’s in creative writing

doctorate in political science

Events

All events should be capitalized, but not included in quotes or italicized. Presentation titles, however, should be put in quotes.

Correct:

Homecoming and Family Weekend

He gave a speech titled “What is the meaning of life?”

Incorrect:

Please stop by “Dance Marathon”

Grades

Do not capitalize.

Ex. first-year, sophomore, junior, senior

Graduation years

John Doe ’79

Class of 1979

Class of ’79

Jane Miller Johnson ‘99

John ’99 and Jane Miller Johnson ‘99

Majors

All majors should be lowercase unless it is the name of a language, such as Spanish

Numerals

Spell out zero to nine, numerals for 10 and above. If beginning a sentence with a number, always spell out. Always use numerals in bulleted lists.

Correct:

55 psychology majors

three seniors

Incorrect:

twenty-five staff members

Phone numbers

Use dashes, not periods.

641-628-5555

States

Use abbreviations for states when used with a city—this is a variation from AP Style. When used with a city, use a comma after city. Postal abbreviations are only acceptable with addresses.

Correct:

Omaha, Neb.

We are going to Minnesota this weekend.

Incorrect:

We vacationed in Calif.

Des Moines, IA

Times

Lowercase a.m. and p.m. with periods. No colon except when minutes are needed.

Correct:

8 p.m.

7:30 a.m.

Incorrect:

2:00 PM

Use noon and midnight. There is no such time as 12 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Titles

All professional titles for faculty and staff should be lowercase when included after a name or own their own, unless one of the words is a language, such as English. If the full formal title is listed before the name, then the first word of the title should be capitalized.

Correct:

professor of sociology

instructor of Spanish

Professor John Doe

Incorrect: Director of Admission

PUNCTUATION

Bullet points

Within a bulleted list, a full sentence should have closing punctuation. For phrases or single items, no punctuation is needed.

Correct:

There are three LEED-rated buildings on campus.

Three LEED-rated buildings

Incorrect:

Roe Center

Commas

Do NOT use the serial, or Oxford, comma. In a series of three or more items, include commas after each item except the one immediately before the conjunction.

Correct:

Lions, tigers and bears

Incorrect:

math, biology, philosophy, or English

Em dashes

An em dash is the long dash that separates a phrase or clause from the rest of the sentence. It should not have spaces on either side.

Ex. Central College has 1,300 students—the perfect size for a student body.

En dashes

An en dash is a shorter dash that can represent the words “until” or “through” in regards to dates and times. It should have spaces on either side.

Correct:

Monday – Friday

6 – 8 p.m.

Quotation marks

Periods, semicolons and commas should always be included inside the quotation marks. A question mark should be included only when it is associated with the quote.

Correct:

“Central is a great school.”

“My professor is great,” she said.

“Where is the Roe Center?” he asked.

Have you seen “The Avengers”?

Sentences

One space between sentences, not two.

USAGE

Adviser

not advisor

Alumni

Refers to a group of male graduates or a group of both male and female graduates. Alumni is the preferred plural. Preferred to “alum” in college materials. Alumnus refers to one male graduate; alumna refers to one female graduate. Alumnae refers to a group of female graduates.

Board of Trustees, the board, the trustees

cellphone

One word, lowercase

college

Capitalize when included in the full name, Central College. Lowercase in all other instances.

Email

“email” rather than “e-mail”

freshman

Use first-year instead, except In intercollegiate athletics materials, where “freshman” will continue to be used per AP Style.

residence hall

Preferred instead of dorm

service-learning

One word, lowercase

smartphone

One word, lowercase

theater

For all uses except for proper names using alternate spelling.

theatre

This is the second spelling in Webster’s and a Central department/major. Department of Theatre.

Van Emmerik Studio

website

One word, lowercase

ATHLETICS

It is the Central athletics department, not athletic department. Likewise athletics director not athletic director.

Central College athletics facilities names

This includes all buildings and fields in the athletics area of the campus. It is acceptable to refer to it as the Kuyper Athletics Complex.

H.S. Kuyper Fieldhouse

Refers only to the area with the track and racquetball courts, the athletic training room, first-floor offices, second-floor locker rooms, second-floor assistant coaches office area and the classroom/meeting room adjacent to the locker rooms. It is acceptable to refer to it as Kuyper Fieldhouse.

Ron Schipper Fitness Center

Refers to the “weight room.” It is also acceptable to refer to it as the Schipper Fitness Center or just the Schipper Center. The adjacent lobby is the Schipper Center lobby.

P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium

Refers to the remainder of the building—gym, offices, wrestling room, football conference room, main lobby and locker rooms. It is acceptable to refer to it as Kuyper Gymnasium or Kuyper Gym. Refer to the main lobby as the Kuyper Gymnasium lobby so that it is not confused with the Schipper Center lobby.

Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium

Includes the football field and outdoor track. It may be referred to as Schipper Stadium.

Other athletics facilities

The baseball, softball and soccer fields are not formally named. We refer to them as the Kuyper Athletics Complex softball field, Kuyper Athletics Complex baseball field and Kuyper Athletics Complex soccer field. They may also be referred to as the Central softball field, baseball field and soccer field.

The cross country course is the Central College Cross Country Course. While a sign there recognizes the support of Hilda and Verle Ver Dught—great-grandparents of former Central runners Josh and Micah Puyear—the course does not bear the family name.

Many on campus will refer to a meeting or event “at Kuyper.” This should be considered slang. Out of respect for the Kuyper family, in any printed materials or public references, please refer to each facility by its given name.

Athletics Honors

All-America is the preferred term, not All-American. It’s All-Iowa Conference or all-conference. Only capitalize if it’s the full title. Academic All-America is a registered name used exclusively for the academic teams selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). There are may other academic honor teams named in various sports that should be referred to by their proper names.